Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.

Emboldened
by the success of Final Fightin
the arcades, Capcom decided to revisit
their Street Fighterconcept and try to make it a better game. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, released in 1991, followed a lot of the same conventions as
its predecessor, but it allowed players the options of playing with eight
characters each with distinct fighting styles and the ability to chain moves
into combos. Coupled with brilliantly animated sprites and a soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura, the game became
a hit and helped to revitalize the arcade game industry and redefine the
fighting genre.

Street Fighter II print ad.

Over the next few years, Capcom would refine the play mechanics, graphics,
character roster and more. They would release a series of updated versions of Street
Fighter II in both the arcade and later on home consoles. While each
version was better than the last, the endless revisions became a running gag in
the video game community. Meanwhile, other game publishers looked to latch on
to Capcom’s success and began developing their own fighting games. Soon, there
was Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Samurai Showdown, King of Fightersand others.
The fighting genre was beginning to become saturated, and another Street
Fighter II revision just wasn’t going to cut it to maintain Capcom’s
dominance in the field.

The Darkstalkers universe.

Capcom decided to use their unique Street Fighter II game
engine for a new kind of fighting game. Producer Alex Jimenez suggested
making a game involving the Universal Monsters, based on
his love of the properties. Capcom petitioned Universal Studios for the
license but were subsequently denied. Jimenez decided to create their own
characters based on those and other monsters; a process which he claimed took
about an hour. The resulting game became Darkstalkers: The Night
Warriors (known as Vampire: The Night Warriors in
Japan). The game was similar to Street Fighter, but was
rendered with the most fluid sprite animation at the time to convey each
character’s distinct personality, gorgeous background level designs, and
introduced the concepts of midair blocking and extra-powerful attacks.

The game was centered on the conflict of supernatural beings known as
Darkstalkers. Cosmic being Pyron came to Earth with the intentions of
conquering and devouring it, and only the Darkstalkers stood a chance of
stopping him and saving the world. The Darkstalkers came to inhabit Earth
through the gradual merging of the Earth realm with the demon world known as
Makai. The game featured ten playable characters: Demitri Maximoff, a vampire
lord who was banished to Earth from Makai; Morrigan Aensland (named for the Celtic Phantom Queen), a
succubus (changed from a female vampire due to Demitri already being one) and
adopted daughter of Belial, the king of Makai; Felicia, a catwoman (or bakeneko) raised in a nunnery
with a desire to become an actress; Jon Talbain (after the character John Talbot from the Wolfmanmovies),
a werewolf struggling to control his animalistic urges through the study of
martial arts; Anakaris, a 5,000-year-old resurrected mummy; Bishamon (based on
Japanese god of war Bishamonten), a cursed suit of samurai armor that takes over whoever
wears it and fills the host with its bloodlust; Rikuo (named after Ricou Browning who played
the Gill-man in Creature from the Black Lagoon), a merman whose race was wiped out by the coming of
Pyron; Sasquatch, a member of a race of yetis in the Canadian wilderness with a
fondness for bananas; Victor von Gerdenheim, a dim-witted Frankenstein monster whose
creator died shortly after making him; and Lord Raptor, an Australian speed
metal guitarist resurrected as a zombie that could transform his limbs into
chainsaws. The two unplayable boss characters were Pyron and his robotic
minion, Huitzil (named for the Aztec god of sun and war, Huitzilopochtli). Initially,
Jimenez wanted Felicia to be from Africa with the ability to turn into a
panther as her special move, as well as the sexy character. Morrigan’s change
to a succubus made her the default sexy one, leaving Felicia to become a cute
white cat at Capcom’s request.

The arcade game was released in Japan in June of 1994 to generally favorable
reviews. Pleased with the results, Capcom was quick to give Darkstalkers the Street
Fighter II treatment and released an updated version the following
March in Japan, which also saw a North American release in April. Night
Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge (Vampire Hunter in Japan)
featured new combos, two types of special moves that required different levels
of the special gauge, and made the bosses playable. It also introduced two new
characters: Hsien-Ko, and Donovan Baine. Hsien-Ko was transformed into a jiangshi, a type of Chinese
reanimated corpse, with formidable magical powers. Her sister, Mei-Ling, keeps
her in check as the fu (or ward-paper) on Hisen-Ko’s hat. Donovan was a dhampir
that wielded a magical sword called “Dhylec” that can channel divine and
elemental powers. Donovan traveled with and protected emotionally-detached
young girl Anita, who possessed powerful psychic powers. Both Hisen-Ko and
Donovan were Dark Hunters and gave the sequel its Japanese name.

Pyron and Huitzil hold Rikuo captive.

The series proved popular enough for Capcom to begin marketing it in other
media. Graz Entertainment optioned
the license to produce an animated series based around the game in North
America (it should be noted Night Warriors was that market’s
first exposure to the franchise, as the original game wouldn’t be released to
home consoles until 1996). Expanding upon the game’s limited story, Pyron
(Richard Newman) had returned to Earth to find it teaming with humans. To
restore the balance where Darkstalkers ruled them and, in turn, served him,
Pyron recruited Demitri Maximoff (Michael Donovan, using a slight Transylvanian
accent) and Morrigan Aensland (Saffron Henderson, using an Irish accent) to
head up his army.

Morrigan and Demitri take down Victor.

Demitri used Pyron’s ship’s tractor beam to recruit said army. He awakened
Anakaris (Scott McNeil & Zoltan Buday, using an Egyptian accent) from his
deep sleep, which seemed to have warped his mind causing him to speak gibberish
at times; Bishamon (Colin Murdock, using a Japanese accent), who was dismayed
to discover his curse persisted; and Lord Raptor (McNeil, using a British
accent), after resurrecting him from the plane he crashed in while on tour in
1970. He also attempted to recruit Jon Talbain (Lee Tokar) while he was on a
hunt; the vain Rikuo (McNeil) as he lamented the loss of his kind while also
admiring himself; Victor von Gerdenheim (Ian James Corlett, impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger) who was
dormant in a movie studio prop room; Bigfoot (Sasquatch renamed, voiced by Dale
Wilson) as he was with his nephew, Hairball (Laura Harris); and Felicia (Lisa
Ann Beley) as she was rejected from yet another stage role. However, they
avoided his efforts to recruit them.

Harry tries to keep Donovan from killing Felicia.

Felicia attempted to find help
against Pyron’s forces by heading to the home of Elijah Grimoire; a
powerful wizard descended from the legendary Merlin (Newman). Instead, she
found young Harry Grimoire (a new character originally named Bobby Bridges,
voiced by Kyle Labine) who had inherited his ancestor’s power, but not the
knowledge to use it. Complicating matters were the Darkstalker hunters Donovan
Baine (Garry Chalk) and Hsien-Ko (Beley, using a Chinese accent), who attacked
without discrimination regardless of their targets’ intent. Felicia and Harry
served as the series’ primary protagonists as they sought to increase Harry’s
powers and thwart Pyron’s plans by teaming-up with the random Darkstalker
they’d encounter. Likewise, Morrigan and Dimitri served as the primary
antagonists with the others appearing every so often.

The show took some liberties
with the source material in order to make it more suitable for their intended young
audiences. Instead of using the Japanese character designs, the characters’
models were redesigned by Frank Brunner, Patrick Gleason, James Glader and Paula LaFond. As a result,
Morrigan and Felicia’s bodies were toned down and covered up a bit more. While
still a succubus, Morrigan was made the descendant of Morgan le Fey (also
Henderson). Donovan’s sword was simply called the “spell sword”, and Anita
(renamed “Amanda” as she was in the North American versions of the game)
absorbed the power of the sword after surviving an attack by Demitri (her
origin remained consistent, but the identity of the attacker tended to change
between media). Raptor relied on sonic attacks from his guitar rather than
transforming his limbs into chainsaws as in the game, and often spoke in song
titles. Bishamon’s curse was housed in the sword he possessed, rather than in
the armor, and once freed from the curse he had to fight on the side of good in
order to be reunited with his dead wife. Victor was made a bit more intelligent
and was given a manservant in his father’s castle in the form of Klaus
Schmendrick (Gerard Plunkett), whose family had always served the von Gerdenheim’s.
Similarly, Hsien-Ko was in the service of the goddess Quan Yin (Venus Terzo), who was
responsible for her creation and her mission.

The series didn’t perform well
with audiences. Many criticized the series’ writing and poor animation, as well
as the addition of the annoying lead character, Harry. As a result, the show
was cancelled after its single season. A second attempt at a Darkstalkers animated
series came when Madhouse and DR Movie produced a
four-episode OVA in Japan called Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’
Revenge. McNeil was retained to once again voice Lord Raptor (called
Zabel Zarock), while Kathleen Barr, who played Harry’s mother, became the voice of Morrigan.
In comparison, the OVA was better received than the North American series.

Concept art for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011) showcasing the Darkstalkers members of the roster.

Morrigan and Felicia proved to
be the most popular with gamers, and appeared in many of Capcom’s later games outside
of the Darkstalkers series. UDON Comics published two Darkstalkers comics as part of their license with Capcom, and in 2017 put
their Street Fighter franchise with them for a crossover
mini-series. However, on the game side, the Darkstalkers series
proper had been allowed to suffer and stagnate under a series of revisions and
re-releases. Lackluster reception to these efforts prompted Capcom to cancel
any plans for future installments of the franchise.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Out
of the Dark” (9/30/95) – Pyron returns to Earth and summons the Darkstalkers to
help him conquer it, and the only one Felicia can find to stop him is the
descendent of a powerful sorcerer.

“Donovan’s
Bane” (10/7/95) – Harry and Felicia head to Great Britain to find a ring
connected to his family, while Morrigan seeks out her own heirloom to take on
the Dark Hunter.

“Pyramid
Power” (10/14/95) – Morrigan, Demitri and Anakaris travel back in time to find
out the fate of an ancient gem while Mrs. Grimoire heads to Egypt to
investigate a floating pyramid.

“The
Game” (10/21/95) – Pyron pits Morrigan and Demitri against each other to see
who can capture the most heroes.